Quote Originally Posted by Driavna View Post
The reason is to keep you playing a longer period of time simple as that.



It's optional content so there is no need to catch-up. That stuff is there to keep us busy. A player just need to pick the ones they find the most interesting (lore or reward wise) and stick with those. Once that's done move to the next ones. FFXIV it's a MMO, IMO it's ok for some side content to take a "long" (not really) period of time.
You said it yourself, FFXIV is a MMO. It's not a regular RPG. Generally speaking you want to be able to play with the other players in-game and when most other players are sitting in later expansions, that can create a bit of a rift. The game usually does a good job of making sure older content doesn't outright die but it's not quite the same.